Page 744 - GREAT EXPECTATIONS

Great Expectations

‘I have thought it over, again and again,’ said Herbert,
‘and I think I know a better course than taking a Thames
waterman. Take Startop. A good fellow, a skilled hand,
fond of us, and enthusiastic and honourable.’

I had thought of him, more than once.
‘But how much would you tell him, Herbert?’
‘It is necessary to tell him very little. Let him suppose it
a mere freak, but a secret one, until the morning comes:
then let him know that there is urgent reason for your
getting Provis aboard and away. You go with him?’
‘No doubt.’
‘Where?’
It had seemed to me, in the many anxious
considerations I had given the point, almost indifferent
what port we made for - Hamburg, Rotterdam, Antwerp
- the place signified little, so that he was got out of
England. Any foreign steamer that fell in our way and
would take us up, would do. I had always proposed to
myself to get him well down the river in the boat;
certainly well beyond Gravesend, which was a critical
place for search or inquiry if suspicion were afoot. As
foreign steamers would leave London at about the time of
high-water, our plan would be to get down the river by a
previous ebb-tide, and lie by in some quiet spot until we

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